Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

Yesterday, ripped-off households were hit with a double whammy. First was the news that food price inflation had reached its highest level for nearly two years. On that same day, the big electricity price hike from SSE Airtricity kicked in. This is the second hike in just one year. This is affecting hundreds of thousands of households. How bad do things have to get before the Government stands up to these companies and protects people from price gouging? When will it rein things in and end the rip-off? Surely the Taoiseach now recognises that it was a serious mistake not to include a cost-of-living package in his budget? The Finance Bill is before the Dáil this week. I ask the Taoiseach to see sense and provide meaningful measures to support households through this cost-of-living crisis.

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